Want to deliver a great speech, go WIIFY

WIIFY —"what's in it for you," pronounced whiff-y-should be a central aspect of every speech (…) Caples says, to keep the self in self-interest: "Don't say, 'People will enjoya a sense of security when they use Goodyear Tires.' Say, 'You enjoy a sense of security when you use Goodyear Tires.'.

I wanted my team to understand that strategy is disciplined thinking that requires tough choices and is all about winning. Grow or grow faster is not a strategy. Build market share is not a strategy. Ten percent or greater earnings-per-share growth is not a strategy. Beat XYZ competitor is not a strategy. A strategy is a coordinated and integrated set of where-to-play, how-to-win, core capability, and management system choices that uniquely meet a consumer’s needs, thereby creating competitive advantage and superior value for a business.

From 20,000 sold units on the first year to 300,000 the following one, how a brand which was born out of a brainstorming session at Toyota in 1983 jumped over the competition so successfully?

Part of the reason has to do with the marketing strategy, another is in the financial resources Toyota was willing to put in :

The first Lexus took six years and one billion dollars to build.

Chester Dawson, author of “Lexus: The Relentless Pursuit said:

“When I had the opportunity to speak to the Chairman of Toyota a couple of years ago, I asked him about expenses. He said that he told his crew to spend as much money as they needed to, but the company would not be willing to put a dime into building a maintenance network in the U.S. because it expected the car to never break because of all the funds that were being put into it. That was obviously an overstatement, but it reflected this kind of thinking. They plowed all kinds of money into it and they took apart the competition. Literally. They went into every car—the S Class, the 7 Series BMW—broke them down into each component ...